Ratehub Inc. uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Learn more or change your cookie preferences. Ratehub Inc. supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies.

We use cookies (why?) You can change cookie preferences. Continued site use signifies consent.

Mother leaves estate to animal charities, will overturned

Judge awards $200K to daughter collecting benefits

by Associated Press
Jul 30, 2015

Britain’s Court of Appeal has overturned the will of a mother who had chosen to give her estate to animal charities rather than her only child.

The mother, Melita Jackson, should have given a reasonable provision to her daughter, Heather Ilott, who is living on benefits and has no pension, Judge Mary Arden says. In its ruling, the court also says Jackson had no connection with the charities named in the will.

The pair had been estranged for 26 years, after Ilott left home at 17 to live with her soon-to-be husband. Several efforts at reconciliation failed.

Jackson died in June 2004, leaving almost all her 486,000 pounds ($758,000) estate to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Blue Cross, a charity for abandoned animals.

The court awarded 143,000 pounds ($223,000) to Ilott, who lives north of London in Hertfordshire county, so she could buy her rented home from a housing association and a further 20,000 pounds in cash as “additional income.”

The charities say in a statement that the ruling could have serious ramifications for non-profit groups that receive income from bequests, and “raises serious questions about whether people generally have the freedom to choose who they want to leave money to in their will.”

They add they’d consider whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Advertisement

Advertisement

How this site works

MoneySense is a journalistic website with freelance contributors who help produce our content. Our goal is to provide the most relevant and up-to-date information as possible, but, as with all things you read on the internet, we recommend you digest our content critically and cross-reference with your own sources, especially before making a financial decision.

We are unable to control and are not responsible for any of the content on external sites that we may link to.
Furthermore, at the point of publication, we do our best to ensure the information we produce is accurate,
however, sometimes prices and terms of the products are changed by the provider without notice to us.
MoneySense will always make updates and changes to correct factual errors.
If you read something you feel is inaccurate or misleading, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us here.